Romesco Sauce

Romesco Sauce combines roasted tomatoes, garlic, red peppers and chiles, almonds, and toasted bread, with herbs, spices, olive oil, and a splash of vinegar. This combination of ingredients creates an incredibly delicious sauce for seafood, pasta, vegetables, poultry, and other meats.

What is Romesco Sauce?

It’s a thick sauce – almost like a pesto – but made with roasted tomatoes, garlic, red peppers, and chiles, plus oil, herbs and seasonings including paprika. Toasted bread and blanched almonds are used to thicken the sauce. Vinegar is added to cut the richness and lend a bright note of flavor.

All combined – Romesco is a very delicious concoction that can be served as a sauce, spread, or dip.

Romesco Origins

Romesco originated in the coastal Catalonia region of Northeastern Spain. It’s believed that fishermen in the region created ‘Salsa Romesco’ to serve with fish – but it’s fantastic slathered on a slice of toasted bread, tossed with pasta and shrimp, and it’s a wonderful sauce spooned over other seafood, chicken, or roasted vegetables.

Is Romesco really a Red Pepper Sauce?

It is technically a roasted tomato sauce, with peppers added for flavor.

In Spain, an authentic Romesco includes Spanish Nora peppers – a round “ball” pepper that is sold dried, then reconstituted in water so the pulp can be scraped out and added to the tomato and garlic sauce.

Here in America, Nora peppers are not readily available unless you have access to a Spanish foods market. (You can also find them online here). We added some reconstituted mild, dried chiles in our Romesco as a nod to the Nora peppers, plus we added some roasted red peppers for additional flavor.

One last note: Although peppers are a prominent ingredient in Romesco Sauce, this isn’t a spicy sauce by any means! It has a rich, complex flavor with sweet and smoky undertones.

• The flavors are fantastic, rich and perfectly balanced, thanks to a variety of simple ingredients that go so well together.
• You can serve Romesco in a variety of ways – a sauce, dip, or spread.
• It’s a forgiving recipe, so you can adjust the amounts of ingredients to suit your tastes and available ingredients.

• Tomatoes – Fresh Roma tomatoes are the best option for Romesco, as they are meaty and flavorful, especially when roasted.
• Garlic – Only freshly-peeled garlic will do here. (Don’t be tempted to use jarred garlic – the flavor isn’t the same.)
• Dried Chile Peppers – Buy Spanish Nora peppers, or mild dried Mexican chile peppers such as Ancho, California, or Poblano. These will add an earthy depth of flavor to your Romesco Sauce. Avoid hotter, spicier dried chiles unless you are looking to make a spicier version of this sauce.
• Red Bell Pepper – Roast your own or make things easier and buy jarred roasted peppers. If you roast your own, char and peel the skin off, then remove the stem and seeds.
• Almonds – This sauce uses peeled, blanched almonds – so a package of slivered almonds (unsalted) is a perfect option. Hazelnuts are another option – just note that you will need to remove the skins.  
• Bread – Toasted ground bread is used to thicken this sauce, so choose a dense bread such as a baguette, ciabatta, country loaf, or sour dough.
• Parsley – Look for Italian flat-leaf parsley.
• Vinegar – The best choice for this recipe is sherry vinegar, but red wine vinegar can also be used if that’s what you have on hand.
• Spices & Seasonings – Sweet paprika, chili powder, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Olive Oil – Use the best quality extra virgin olive oil you can find.

1. Split the dried chile peppers, shake out the seeds and remove stem. Soak in boiling water to rehydrate.
2. Slice the bread and place in the oven to dry and toast. Then, process to make crumbs.
3. Toast the almonds in a dry skillet, then cool.
4. Split tomatoes and roast until charred on both sides. Place roasted tomatoes in a strainer to drain off any liquid and cool. Discard liquid
5. Coarsely chop garlic.
6. Drain jarred, roasted peppers, discarding the liquid.
7. In a food processor, place re-hydrated dried peppers along with toasted almonds and garlic and process until fine.
8. Add roasted tomatoes and process until smooth.
9. Add roasted peppers and process until smooth.
10. Add parsley, spices and seasonings, vinegar, plus some of the ground toasted bread and process until smooth.
11. With the motor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the Romesco is smooth and emulsified. *See Cooking Tip below.
12. Let the sauce sit for about an hour for the flavors to meld.
13. Serve following our Pasta Romesco with Shrimp recipe, other seafood, or chicken – or smear over a toasted baguette slice as an appetizer. It’s also delicious with fresh roasted vegetables.

• Can I make Romesco Sauce ahead of time?  Yes, this sauce can be made in advance and used as needed, much like a pesto. Once the sauce is made, the flavors will meld together better if you allow it to sit for an hour or so before using.
• How do I store leftovers?  Store refrigerated in a tightly sealed container. Wisdom varies on how long refrigerated Romesco sauce will last, from 3 days to 2 weeks, but the longer it sits refrigerated, the stronger the garlic flavor will become.
• Can I freeze?  Yes – For the freshest flavor, freeze what you don’t need right away in small zipper seal bags with the air squeezed out.

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